The Encounter
by GreyEyesGlaringAtShonda
Summary: Michael’s thoughts during one of the Computer Club meetings…right before he bumps into Mia, all dressed up for her princess lessons, in the first book.


The Encounter 

By **greyeyedgirl**

Summary: Michael's thoughts during one of the Computer Club meetings…right before he bumps into Mia, all dressed up for her princess lessons.

A/n: My second Princess Diaries fic…try not to be too harsh, kay:p I hope you like it!

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"This meeting of the Albert Einstein School for Boys, made coeducational circa 1975, Computer Club will now come to order." Judith Gershner, Computer Club president, sat down, as I continued to doodle in the margins of my Advanced Calculus notes.

"Can we please have the secretary's minutes?"

_Pavlov's Dog,_ I doodled._ No, that's lame._ I was trying to come up with a good name for the band I'd been thinking about starting. I'm a guitar player, you see, but no one knows that, not even my parents. I practice in my room almost every night, _and_ I write some pretty good songs.

Well. One song, as of right now, but it's getting there.

"Michael!"

I glanced up, seeing Judith glaring at me. Realizing she'd been saying my name for about 5 minutes, I jumped, then, sitting back casually, I glanced at the sheet beside my old Calc notes and read, "We've got a little over 4,000 left, guys. That new program we installed really cost us. We'll have to go easy for a while now."

"Thank you, Michael," Judith said, smiling sweetly. I started doodling on my Treasurer's Report, now having used up all the margins on my math homework.

Scribbling a few ideas for the next issue of my webzine, _CrackHead, _I listened to her mindlessly for a few more minutes, before resuming my doodling.

_MM&MT._ I sat up, quickly glancing around to see if anyone was looking. Besides Jon Yang and Arnold Minsky pretend sword-fighting on my left while making lightsaber noises, and Alfred Beattie over in the corner picking his nose, everyone was gazing at Judith, half of their eyes looking dazed out, no doubt thinking about the last _Buffy_ episode, and the rest looked like they were trying to think of original and clever ways of smothering Judith in her sleep.

Carefully turning my pencil around and erasing the initials I'd drawn fiercely, I glanced up, wiping away the pink shreddings scattered all over my paper.

I wondered if she'd really picked Josh Richter over me to procreate with after the world had obliviated every other male and female. Maybe Lilly had just lied, trying to mess with me. Why _would_ Mia pick Josh, anyway? Obviously he was like a total pretty boy, but was that really what you wanted at the end of the world? Mia was smarter than _that._

"Michael, did you get that?" Judith was asking me. I looked at her, pencil still mindlessly drawing a heart around Mia's name, and blinked. "Oh, yeah," I said, nodding.

"Good. Now that that's settled, let's move on to what certain of you…_did…_to the keyboards in the lab. I know it's very cute and all that to switch the buttons around to spell out profanity, but Principal Gupta said that if it happens again---"

I looked down at my paper, realized what I had been writing, and quickly scrubbed at it with my eraser. What was I _thinking?_ She was my little sister's best friend! Besides…she obviously had the hots for that Richter guy. Why, was beyond me…What did he really have going for him, besides his perfectly combed hair? So he got all A's…So did I! And it wasn't as if Josh had a 177 IQ, like me. Josh would be lucky if his was into double digits…

That was mean. I needed to stop drinking so much coffee. The caffeine was scrambling my brain.

"Okay. I think that's all for today, guys. We'll meet again next week, kay?" Judith stood up, piling together her notes and clipping them into a binder. I stood up, going to do the same, and realized I'd wrote Mia's name a dozen times all over the bottom of my report.

_What are you **thinking?**_ My brain screamed at me. I crumbled up my paper in my fist, tossing it into the dustbin nearby. Sure, she'd looked totally adorable in her pajamas last week, laying on my parent's bed with Lilly and giggling when Pavlov had licked at her face. But was that really any reason to go nutso over some _chick?_ Besides, she liked Josh Richter. Any idiot could see that.

I was going to end up in my mother's Over Forty and Still Single group that met every other Tuesday. Except, generally, that's just for women.

I grabbed my laptop from off of the table, before throwing my papers in my bag, tossing it over my shoulder and exiting behind Arnold, as he mindlessly twirled his pencil between two of his fingers, still making low lightsaber noises under his breath. I was just heading out the door when I remembered I'd left my science homework in my locker, and turned back.

I was just going by the girl's bathroom when some girl came barreling out, her arms filled with tennis shoes with the socks sticking out, and bombarded right into me. I got pushed back a bit, then when I looked up to see who it was I didn't recognize her for a sec.

"Christ, Thermopolis," I said, watching her leaning over and trying to pick up the stuff she'd dropped. "What happened to _you?_" Because honestly, she looked totally weird. An attractive weird, I mean. But still weird. Her hair was still sticking up like those girls from Jersey, and she was all made up, her eyes seemed to shimmer under her…uh…I don't know exactly what it's called, but it's that glittery stuff chicks put on their eyelids. I think Lilly said it was called eyeshadow. And anyway, her lips looked all puffy and hot from her lipstick, and she drew in her breath when she saw me, making her delicate cheekbones even more predominant.

God, I'm turning into a _chick._

Mia obviously had other things on her mind, because she was all, "You know I have to meet with Mr. Gianini every day after school because I'm flunking Alge--"

I interrupted her, slightly annoyed, still a little in shock. "I know _that,_" I said, holding out the lipstick that had came out of her backpack and had tried to make an escape rolling down the hallway. "I mean what's with the war paint?"

She seemed a little offended, and I wondered if she thought I meant she looked weird or something. Which she totally did. An attractive weird. Whatever. "Nothing. Don't tell Lilly."

Who? Oh, right, my sister! "Don't tell Lilly what?" I asked, watching her stand up. Christ, was she wearing _pantyhose?_ "Jesus, Thermopolis. Where are _you_ going?" Oh god, she was going on a _date._ Maybe with that Richter dude. No, definitely not. I mean---

"Nowhere." I have to say, Mia is a really bad liar. She doesn't seem to realize it, but whenever she does it, her nostrils flare.

I heard a bunch of the kids from the Computer Club come up behind me, and knew they were all standing there, staring at her, too.

"Nobody goes _nowhere_ looking like that." I suddenly felt kind of sweaty, and switched my laptop from my right arm to my left. Oh, _crap. _"Thermopolis, are you going out on a _date?_"

At first I wasn't sure if she was lying, because her nostrils totally didn't flare. "_What?_ No, I'm not going out on a date!" She was staring at me as if I'd just told her I thought Xena could get beaten up my Britney Spears, or something. "I have to meet my grandmother!"

Her nostrils still weren't flaring, but she looked really funny as she was saying it. Who goes to see their grandma in _that_ get-up? "And do you usually wear lipstick and panty hose to meet your grandmother?" I asked, kind of skeptically.

Her face turned even redder, which I sort of thought was cute, in a scary kind of way, because she still might be lying, and for all I knew was going outside to meet Richter someplace. Somebody coughed kind of loudly, and I glanced up to see some huge dude beckoning to Mia. I raised one eyebrow, and Mia turned back to look at me. "Look, don't tell Lilly, okay?" She shifted her backpack further up her shoulder, and ran down the hall, her loafers making slapping noises against the tile.

I watched her, one eyebrow furled. At least if she _was_ meeting Richter, he'd totally be freaked out by that Shaft dude.

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a/n: So…um…do you like it? I hope so… ;) Please leave a review! Seriously:D


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